Shipping Updates

Hi folks!

It’s that time of year (AND MORE!) Spring will officially be here in 2 weeks and we want you to have your products in hand before then!

Did you see the March edition of People Magazine yet!?

Tim Holtz Film Strip Ribbon was featured on page 92 as “Marc Held’s Oscar Party Picks” for decorations. Simon Says Stamp was also noted. HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!???? Man, I always knew Tim Holtz rocked, but now so many more people are seeing it too!

While we had worked with the “people” at “People” magazine :) to get the product into this issue, we had no idea the impact it would have on our business. What’s really wonderful is that it has introduced some customers who are new to the rubber stamping world into our store. It’s fun to see our industry expanding!

Did you know we had a “clearance” sale in Mid February? We are working on developing our new website and behind the scenes we are reorganizing our warehouse in preparation for the new site enhancements. These enhancements will not only make it easier for you to shop, browse, and be inspired, but will also allow our logistics team some modern age improvements in order fulfillment. Thus resulting in a much smoother and happier shopping experience for YOU! Once our logistics team catches up from the mad rush we are under now, we do hope to reinstate our clearance sale in Mid March.

Our Early Spring 2014 has been very well received! THANK YOU! The new Spring colors make my heart happy and I’m thrilled you are enjoying them too! The March card kit is nearly sold out and the fresh happy colors and theme are a welcomed vision in this bitter and cold winter. CLICK HERE to see our inspiration newsletter!

Aren’t these all really wonderful things?! New releases, mainstream publicity, discount sales, a website redesign! WE ARE BEYOND THRILLED that this is all happening….. but it’s happening ALL AT ONCE! And what that means to you…. is that we are about 10-12 days behind our normal shipping times on shipping orders right now. Our whole team is working overtime to catch up. Each day we are catching up a little bit more. We are so very sorry to delay your orders in any way! BUT PLEASE KNOW that we are doing the best we can to process your orders with great care and get them on their way to you as quickly as we can.

Did you order an item on Reserve or Pre-order?

In the excitement to order new crafting goodies, some might not notice that certain items in their order were on RESERVE, and that is most likely why the order hasn’t shipped. When there is an item on our web site listed as RESERVE or PRE-ORDER that this means your entire order will be held until that item(s) arrives into stock. You will see this note in the item description:

“Please remember that you are placing this item on reserve and we will ship it as soon as it arrives. Please do not order this item with other products unless you want your ENTIRE order to be held from shipment. If you wish to purchase in stock items for immediate shipment, please place them on a separate order. Thanks so much! We anticipate a ship date of approximately _____.”

If you are currently waiting on an order, please take moment to check if you have items marked RESERVE or PRE-ORDER on the order.

Thank you for your patience while we work to carefully ship your parcels around the world. Items that were on pre-order or reserve yesterday have just now been moved to “in stock” status on the web site. If you’ve been waiting for your order to ship, please know that your order is now entering queue in the warehouse and we are working hard to get it out right away for you.

USPS Tracking

If you are tracking your orders online, it does seem as though USPS is pretty busy too. Once you receive an email from us stating that your order has shipped, you should be able to track it within 48 hours on the USPS website.

Are you waiting for a Monthly Card Kit?

Our monthly card kit subscriptions are billed and shipped between the 17th and the 24th of each month.

Improvements are on the way!

We are very excited that 2014 is going to bring not only tremendous improvements to our web site, but also to the other flows in business. We want to be better for you and are constantly trying to find ways to improve. Thanks for hanging in there with us! It wasn’t long ago that I was hand addressing, hand mailing, and hand stamping parcels (yes with POSTAGE stamps!) at my kitchen table. In fact, it was just a few years ago. Now we are very lucky to have 35 full time and many seasonal helpers working hard for you. THANK YOU for helping us help you!

No team works without error. But I PROMISE you we have a team full of HEART and we look forward to you receiving your parcels and enjoying Spring with fresh, new products this year.

Thanks Heidi!! I have checked my orders and one has now shipped and the second one, I’m still waiting on, but hoping it will be coming very soon! I know that typically my orders ship much faster, so I knew something must be holding things up or that you are swamped again!! I DO thank you for the updates and for letting us know you continue to work on improvements.

I always try to order early for classes and take my time to be sure I order ONLY what is in stock. I add the Reserve and Pre-Order Items to my Wish List until they are available, as that is better for me. I’m not good about waiting and love the have new goodies ASAP…don’t we all! I am also excited to be starting in the next Online Card Class and thank you again for your generous Discount, I’m sure I’ll have another order placed soon!!

I sure hope this all works out soon, I do appreciate the update to now know what is going on. I was in the process of redoing my craft room and some of that is the organizers and while it is not the end of the world it is not here, it is something I wanted done before spring hits and have all the outdoor work to do. Trust me after this winter I am not sure if I will spend anytime in doors this summer. I know for me that is also the big push to get colors in, just to rid off the winter blahs.

Thanks for the update, I do appreciate all the hard work everyone does. I look forward to the new website. Of course there will be a learning curve, and then we might need your patience with us as we learn it, haha,The one thing I know is once my order arrives it will be perfect as always. Once again thanks for the update and congrats on your success.

I love Simon. Thanks for taking the time to address your customers! That’s the reason why I love Simon!!! You guys rock, and I will continue to be a customer for that reason! Congrats on being on People!!!

Congrats, but I hope you remember (or realize) how important it is to stay a humble and ethical business owner. It can all be gone in a heartbeat. These are still hard times and no one is promised anything. I hear of craft distributors closing down all the time. I was just told of one the other day and of course Archivers just closed down a few weeks ago.

Thanks for letting us know Heidi. I am waiting for an item to get back into stock before ordering… the way it’s been lately, I may have to reserve one and sit on the order for a time. Question though: Will the customer’s CC be charged immediately, or when it is shipped?

Ooooh squeal!! I’m so excited for you and your business! I have loved Simon since I first found you!! My one and only complaint has never been about shipping, I always have received my orders on time! If possible, could you make it so when you want to view an item in the store, it enlarges enough to read the sentiments on the stamps?! Thank you!!

my order placed the 23rd didi not have a pre order or reserved item on it. I learned not to order those items. I have inquired many times with no response. My order as of this time still has not been shipped,

Heidi, I couldn’t be more thrilled for you and all your success! I love SSS!

I do have a question for you . . . .
I am waiting on an order too – but I knew I had an “on reserve” item in there, so no problem on the delay. It’s the 6×6 Hello Sunshine paper pad from Lawn Fawn. I am a bit worried – only because the rest of that collection has been available for awhile now. Wondering why the 6×6 pad is still on reserve. Thank you so much, and thanks also for all your hard work and the care you give to your customers! ♥

Congrats on being featured! I am a bit upset as I just placed an order this morning without knowing any of the shipping delays, and now I definitely won’t have them in time for a class. I also worry that at the time I placed my order there were no items sold out but the longer my items take to ship then there is a possibility that many items will sell out before they ship to me. That can get frustrating. I don’t like to be negative as I’m sure you and all employees are stressed enough, I just can’t help in today’s day and age to have to wait 3-4 weeks for items. I hope you can get all if this ironed out and I wish you luck!

If the items were in stock when you placed your order then they should be in stock when we ship. We are catching up in logistics a little quicker than we had anticipated so you order should be shipping in the next week or so :) I hope this helps!

I love SSS but am disappointed that my order placed on Feb. 21 still has not shipped. There were no reserve items. I ordered a special stamp to make a birthday card for my daughter but I won’t have it in time. Normally my orders ship much faster. I did get a response to my inquiry on Friday saying they would make sure my order shipped asap but it still hasn’t shipped.

I am with Pam and a couple of the other ladies. I placed my order on the 22nd with no reserves or pre-orders. I called this past Friday (the 28th) and was told by the lady who answered my call that she would make sure my order went out that day. Now it is Monday (the 3rd) and my order still has not gone out. I am grateful for the explanation on your blog about the delay but faster communication would have been preferred. If I had known it would take 2 to 3 weeks for my order to be shipped, I would have waited until your problems had been fixed and used my money else where. Now I have money tied up and nothing to show for it. I hope with all the changes you are making you also are hiring lots of people to handle the increased shipping so that this fiasco does not happen again.

I agree, especially since I placed a large order. Their foreseeable reasons for being behind are no excuses for poor turnaround times. Whats sad is that there has been no compensation for this.
I just may never order again.

Congrats on the success! Thank you so very much for the update. I placed an orders on 2/21 and 2/24 and neither have shipped. But the customer service is awesome and I really appreciate you addressing it on the blog. I just can’t wait for my new products; this past release was awesome. Congrats again.

I placed an order on 2/23 and it has not shipped. Seems slow for items that were listed as in-stock. I am frustrated at not being able find any way to contact customer service. Am I missing something (besides my order)?

I love your online shopping experience and I too find your shipping times very reasonable to Canada. I am so happy that you carry the variety of products that you do – when I want something I know I can go to your site and usually you have it. Actually, I find I want products after watching Jennifer McGuire’s videos and browsing your blog – so I know that you carry it! I am happy that your business is such a success, as then I know you will continue and we will have somewhere to get our supplies. Much continued success in the future.

Glad to hear that you are improving your website. Sometimes it is a bit daunting to do a search for an item, however, and come up with something like 3,000 results. Who has the time to look through all those pages? I hope you are improving upon your search tool which will ultimately end in more sales.

I’m not impressed with this explanation at all. Slow shipping times are a problem for months. Three of my last four orders took 7-11 days to be shipped out (the last order was placed 10 days ago, still not shipped).
Let us know when the situation improves.

I love the products Simon Says Stamp sells. I love the blog. I love the ideas generated. I get the monthly kits and adore them.

But I would like to see shipping turnaround to be a bit quicker. Some sites get their things shipped lightning fast but it does seem to take SSS a bit of time to get things out of the warehouse and on their way. I hope this will result in an improvement! and thanks for the update!

I’m with you Susan. Simon is one of my first go to stores for supplies because I love the product. I have been a kit subscriber since day 1 and I but at least monthly if not twice monthly. This is not the first time that shipping has been an issue for me. I do respect that Heidi has come to us to tell us about the delays, but like you, I would have preferred to know ahead of time and gone elsewhere, especially for some of these things that were not Simon Exclusives. I will continue to shop with Simon, but I do hope shipping is a little quicker, even for normal products. The other store I shop with turns around in less than 2 days, every time and gives a gift in every single order. I know Simon is growing so I hope resources are dedicated to shipping, especially now that it’s gotten so expensive.

Wow, congratulations on the shout out in People! That is wonderful for your business! I was happy when you got the Clearly Besotted Feather stamp and matching dies back in…got them this past week and stayed up until 1 AM last night playing with feathers! Now I hope the balloon dies and stamps I ordered will be on the way soon…thanks!

Thank you for keeping us informed! I had a feeling that things were a bit busy for you with all the new products and sales, so I’m staying patient. :)

If you’re looking for suggestions, I’d love to have an easier way to access the links for products I’ve purchased (either to look at them again or to re-order). It’s not terribly hard to just search for products, anyway, but a link I can click on from my purchase history would be much faster.

Thanks, Laura! That’s exactly where I usually go to get the full product names. But I still have to copy/paste the name in the search box to get the product page. It would just be a teeny bit faster if I could click on a link instead.

I’m totally ok with working around it, but I figured I’d mention it anyway if suggestions are wanted. :D

Well i’m happy to say that dispite all you’re clearance sales, hectic pace and new found popularity, i have recieved 2 orders in record speed, (to Canada even, 7 days) and the 3rd order placed on friday, just shipped. I am one happy crafter ! Xo

thanks for explaining all the things happening at SSS. how exciting. i know i am excited to receive my last order placed on 2/20, but i am mostly glad to hear of your continued success and changes that come with growing. i know that your shipping will improve, i can wait (it’s really really hard you know) because i want your business to continue to grow and flourish and introduce more and more fantastic stamps, dies, and stencils. i can’t wait to try your new ink pads and card stock as well. in due time.

I have to say I am a full-on Simon groupie at this point, all of your releases have been so great and I love using your products for my card making. =) I just got my order of your new spring products yesterday….those new cardstock colors really made me smile! Keep up the great work and I hope your improvements will make the sailing a lot smoother on your end. I’m excited to see the website changes too. =)

Great news that SSS is healthy and growing–even though there are growing pains. No problem with my order, though it’s nice to know it’s not going to be a “forever” type of thing. I love your new paper colors and sure wish they were a little more affordable. I look forward to trying out your new line of inks. Thanks for all the great products SSS is bringing to the marketplace. Congratulations on your successful business.

This seems to be just a rehash of a post from December. Nothings changed since then. You are always having new releases, promotions and discounts, not to mention different calendar holidays in the mix and still can’t get parcels out in a decent amount of time. You know months in advance when releases will take place so to be understaffed is continued ignorance on your part. I am shopping at Ellen Hutson from now on, where parcels are sent out in one to two days. It’s too bad because I do love the exclusive Simon Says products.

Back in October I placed an order, which to me was sizeable. In the end it took 2 weeks and 2 days for me to receive it. I was told by Customer Service that everything in my order was in stock and it would go out on 2 different occasions. When I finally received my order, one item was missing. There was a note stating that it had gone out of stock and that it would ship as soon as it came back in. That was an additional 3 weeks.

I get that you probably get a lot of orders — especially with the kit of the month and if there is a new release that month but you continue to hide behind the fact that you don’t have enough personnel in your shipping department to package orders or “its in the
que to go out today or tomorrow.

I ended up sending an email to your customer service department about my disappointment with your shipping. In my email I explained that there were too many other online stores that had really good shipping policies and great customer service departments and also said I would never shop with Simon Says Stamp again. I did get a response — it was a pretty generic response — sorry you feel that way. I saved the response to remind me why I do not order from SSS anymore. I really do like your products — especially the exclusive Simon Says dies and stamps but I am not willing to wait up to a month to get my things. I have to put my credit card number in the minute I place my order and you take my money right away — yet I don’t get my product for weeks.

I really do hope that you are able to make improvements to your shipping practices — you have some wonderful products.

I just placed my first order on the 26? and It still hasn’t shipped. Overall because I have not shopped with you before, I am not impressed. The customer service reps say your order will be shipped in a day or two, and its been 3 or 4. One, I don’t like being lied to or make vague references on when things will get done. Two, I wish that SSS was upfront with the delay, posting on the website at checkout. Third, there should be some compensation like a discount or freebie because you have admitted to “running behind” because of things you could foresee being a problem. It’s not a good first impression.

While it’s great for small businesses to receive notoriety and a boost in customers, if you can’t keep up with your current customers or continue to provide good customer service and prompt fulfillment of orders, you’ve lost your focus for being in business in the first place. I’ve ordered from SSS several times and have only recently had problems with delayed orders (with no pre-order items in it). The warehouse is in Ohio. I live in NC. I should be able to receive an order in days, not weeks. I just ordered again (against my better judgement) last week and STILL no email saying my order has shipped. I just received an order TODAY from another company in Massachusetts that I did the SAME DAY last week as my SSS order. I can get an order from Iowa and Arizona in days not weeks. Perhaps maybe SSS needs to invest in the 2 DAY PRIORITY FLAT RATE SHIPPING for U.S. orders anyway. With that said, it seems the problem is getting the orders FILLED AND SHIPPED out so that says more manpower is needed. Time before this, I had to email back customer service to get the Tracking #. EVERY where else provides the tracking # on the shipping email. All I get is another copy of my order and a statement “your order has shipped”. I agree, it’s a shame SSS is not being up front and very vague. It took me a phone call and a couple emails to find out about my order. I even PHONED customer service and THEN received an EMAIL thanking me for my phone call and a vague explanation of backups. That I find rude and bad customer service to NOT return a PHONE call WITH a PHONE CALL. I recently subscribed to the monthly kit too. I got it a lot faster than my regular order. I’m waiting to see if the next one is just as quick. I too feel that with all the other online stamp stores out there, I don’t need these hassles. I try to order things I want for a certain project or season ahead of time but SSS is making that difficult. I like some of the particular SSS items and they have some nice prices on others, but now I may just go to each specific store and bypass SSS, the middle man. Very sad. And for so many to be so dissatisfied and being treated the same — little communication/vague communication and no better repeat service — Very poor management of customer service and very poor management period.

I’m sorry but there is no difference now late June to when this blog post was done.. Vague return emails, and still my order says ‘pending’.. Really? I paid for my items and my order hasn’t shipped.. I just received my order from My Favorite Things ordered the same day, it arrived today, I ordered from A Cherry on Top which is in MI, a state or two over from you and it’s due to arrive here tomorrow (Friday).. It’s quite sad that businesses don’t realize how important it is to have a decent turnaround on getting orders shipped.. It’s the most important part about running your business.. Quite frankly it leaves a bad taste in customers mouth and people just won’t order anymore, despite the fact we love the products, BUT, not loving them so much that we accept the lagging ship time.. If you’re growing and want continued success, please hire more people to pull orders, packaging and getting them out.. You must have to wonder how UPS has been in business for almost 108 yrs and still going strong.. Wish you luck, but, seriously there isn’t enough luck in the world if you’re not going to get that part of your business together and keep it at the forefront of it.. It will make you or break you, the choice is yours..
I can say this was my first time ordering and it will be more than likely my last, I have been in the craft industry for over 18 yrs and this is not what I tolerate. I want my business to be appreciated and my money spent well, and receiving my order in a timely manner is at the top of my list..

Hi SSS, Still waiting for my order to arrive. Left your facility on Nov. 28, and now it is Dec.14. I tried tracking it and it says it went to Montreal CA when I am on the West Coast of British Columbia. Never been this long.
Tracking # LN802016623US can you offer any help.
What state are you in?
Thanks C

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In business since 2002, Simon Says Stamp is striving to offer you the best online selection of stamps, altered art, scrapbooking, mixed media, card making and paper crafting products in the world. We stock over 100,000 quality items in our warehouse so that we can offer you quick service and one stop shopping at a great price!

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This blog is owned by The Happy Crafter, LLC d/b/a Simon Says Stamp. It's contents are managed by the team and we enjoy sharing great ideas with you. Please feel free to use the inspiration provided. However, we ask that you respect the work of the artists involved.